As a densely populated urban area that hosts throngs of visitors each day, extreme demand is consistently placed upon the City’s infrastructure, including its beaches, parks, roadways, and sidewalks. In particular, the City streets are often heavily congested due to the enormous number of cars, buses, trolleys, scooters (sit-down and stand-up), autocycles, mopeds, pedestrians, bicyclists, and Segways all sharing the City streets. Public safety is of the utmost importance in the City, and drivers who speed, or engage in reckless or careless driving, unnecessarily endanger many lives (including their own). Moreover, many residents continue to complain about motor vehicle drivers who speed, weave in and out of traffic, run red lights, do doughnuts, and sometimes even go the wrong way on streets.

Accordingly, I would request that the City Manager and the Police Department be prepared to discuss the current staffing plan to address and enforce these driving violations, and I would further request that the City Manager and the Police Department provide the Mayor and City Commission with recommendations as to how the staffing plan and enforcement can be further enhanced to increase public safety on streets and roadways within the City.